“2012 will go down in history as the year when the economic side of the business finally took off,” said senior analyst Aapo Markkanen in a statement. ”We’re no longer talking only about a short-term gold rush. Apps have become a major digital industry.”

Beyond Android and iOS, ABI notes that the main candidates for the third ecosystem — Microsoft with its Windows Phone OS and RIM have also “clearly made the monetization aspect a key piece in their platform strategies.